image by Sofiane Boualia
The girl raises her hands and laughs while the wind blows through her hair and the sun sets the rural landscape of Southern French. It feels like pure freedom. How much we already love the beginning of the track and video of “Time To Fall” – the latest release of Enfant Sauvage. It is the second part of a trilogy that will be released on his his remarkable forthcoming debut album Petrichor on the 19th of November via Animal63.
“Time To Fall takes place on a summer night, in a party lost in the middle of the fields,” explains Guillaume, “A young woman flirts with excess and the desire to be noticed. Under the stars, moments of grace don’t last long, and the first rays of sunlight often bring despair.”
Enfant Sauvage, is a Solo Album Project by the French artist Guillaume Alric who is well known as one the half of award winning electronic duo The Blaze, and is inspired by the photographs he took in his youth while growing up in the countryside of Clamecy. “There was a lot of liberty in this photography for me because it’s pre internet generation,” explains Guillaume, “We didn’t have all this social media & technology. And so, playing in nature and making music and smoking was all the entertainment we had. There was a liberty to this a kind of romanticism.” The very personal and intimate inspiration on the album is also linked to people from the countryside, therefore the talented artist decided for a less electronical and more organic sound.
We had a chat with Guillaume about the intense feeling of his youth, wanting to break those preconceived ideas of forgotten places and the smell that appears after the rain as an inspiration for his album titel.
Hey Guillaume, we are so in love with the video and the track. The first thing that came to my mind when listening it was „freedom“. Only later I read liberty indeed plays a main part in it. Time to Fall is the second part of a trilogy. It is inspired by your youth in the countryside of France. By the liberty of pre-internet generation. Tell us about the moment when you found those photographs that you had taken from that time? How did you feel and where did you keep them?
I took these photos between the age of 16 and 25. At the time, I did it without really asking myself any questions, I just knew that the moments we were living were precious because time passed quickly. We were lulled by the recklessness, freedom, intense feeling of youth. There was no internet, our playground was real and everything we did remained in this reality. Like these analog photographs. If I had taken them with a phone to post them on social networks, I would have probably lost them. I knew I was going to do something with them one day, it was just a matter of time before they turned out to be a testimony of an era.
And what was the moment when you thought to yourself – hey let’s make music and videos out of this inspiration?
With the lockdown, I felt the need to go back to those memories, going back to the roots. This situation offered me the time I hadn’t had for a long time. From then on, I fell like telling these parts of my life, showing these faces and stories that I have known. My hometown, like many forgotten places sometimes suffer from clichés. I wanted to break those preconceived ideas by showing the beauty of such places.
“We were lulled by the recklessness, freedom, intense feeling of youth. There was no internet, our playground was real and everything we did remained in this reality.”
How did the idea of making a trilogy come about?
I find that triptychs are a good way to tell a story : introduction, development, conclusion.
Tell us a little bit about your song writing process…
For the instrumental part, I let myself go without any specific goal and the music reveals itself, which is quite abstract and can take a lot of time.
As for the lyrics for this project, I tried to remember souvenirs, scenes from that time, a lot of the lyrics are secretly about people I knew. I like hiding things in my music, it soothes and allows me to express things that I wouldn’t do in everyday life.
You also self-directed the videos for it. Was it the first time you directed and what was the most challenging part about it?
The most challenging part was the intimacy of what I had to film. I was telling the story of where I come from, with my friends from there who were part of the cast, staged in the forests, hills, rivers, all these places full of stories for us.
Modesty is very strong there and I had to reassure people, make them understand that I was doing all this out of love and kindness. For them, for me, it had to be true, I had no right to make mistakes and I had to be careful not to fall into the trap of overestetization.
“My hometown, like many forgotten places sometimes suffer from clichés. I wanted to break those preconceived ideas by showing the beauty of such places.”
What is the meaning of your upcoming debut album titel Petrichor?
Petrichor is the smell that appears after the rain, especially in summer when the ground is dry. It comes from an oil that plant roots secrete to absorb water in the soil. I liked the symbolism of the word, like the scent of a past event.
The album is a love letter to Clamecy, the small town you grew up in. Where do you live nowadays? And could you imagine to return to Clamecy for a living?
I now live in Paris, and I often miss Clamecy. I could imagine returning there to live one day, but not for now.
It is also a testimony to the teenager you once were. So were you a Enfant Sauvage (wild child) as your artist name might reveal? And how much and what parts of who you were at that time are still in you nowadays?
I was indeed a wild child, there’s no doubt about it, in the sense that I’ve always had trouble imposing certain limits to my freedom. I always did everything to live as I wanted, even if it meant putting myself in danger sometimes. It is this state of mind that has allowed me to dedicate my body and soul into an artistic career. And I think that the child we were once remains in us for life. So yes, a part of me is still a child and makes me the adult I am today.
“I think that the child we were once remains in us for life.”
I myself grew up without internet and social media in my youth. I feel very nostalgic about that time. I feel that at first it was all so exciting and cool, but has now come to a point where it has taken up so much of our lives and I feel like wanting to escape. How do you deal with technology in your life these days? ( like do you use it a lot, how do you feel about it?)
I think every generation is a source of technology, culture, mindset.. and like everything there is good and bad. The experience I gained over the years allowed me to have a critical look on certain things but I have faith in the human being. I know that the essential, no matter what form it takes, will remain. I am not a big fan of social networks because I sometimes feel that they serve a certain form of superficiality. But I also see it as an opportunity to share, especially on an artistic level.
What do you wish for your own future and the future of the world?
I hope my future will surprise me as it has always has. As for the world’s future it is difficult to know but I do have faith in it. I feel like it things will always go in the right direction, even if it take thousands of years.
You can pre-order the album here.
